SportBusiness.com

ARENA FOOTBALL TOUCHES DOWN ON NASN

The North American Sports Network (NASN) is back to showing weekly coverage of the Arena Football League (AFL) in the UK and Ireland.

NASN will have exclusive coverage of up to 50 games this season including coverage of the playoffs and ArenaBowl XIX Las Vegas.

In a new deal, which covers the 2005 and 2006 seasons, NASN will screen two games a week on Monday and Friday nights. The AFL season will run through May with the playoffs in June, culminating in the ArenaBowl on June 12 in Las Vegas, Nev.

With coverage of the NFL, CFL, College Football and now the AFL, NASN offers American Football 12 months a year.

The AFL is the indoor version of American Football with a number of key differences.

In the AFL, the field is only 50 yards long as opposed to 100 in the outdoor game, there are also only eight players on the field for each team instead of the usual 11 and most players must play both offense and defense.